Blade dispensing magazine



y 6, 1952 c. METZLER 2,595,280

BLADE DISPENSING MAGAZINE Filed Dec. 30. 1947 l/E/VTZZEL Patented May 6, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE BLADE DISPENSING MAGAZINE Charles L. Metzler, Palisades Park, N. J assignor to Gillette ,Safety Razor Company, Boston,

Mass., a corporation of Delaware Application December 30, 19in, Serial No. 794,639

5 Claims. 1

This invention comprises a new and improved device for containing and dispensing sharp-edged blades such as safety razor blades.

For many years it has been the practice to package and dispense safety razor blades in individual envelopes or wrappers. The removal of a blade so dispensed from its envelope is likely to impair the extremely thin and fragile shavin edge of the blade by accidental contact with the paper of the wrapper. Unwrapping the blade also necessitates some delay in preparing for shaving, with objectionable liability of cutting the fingers of the user.

The object of the present invention is to provide" an improved device for dispensing unwrapped blades which may be constructed at a minimum of expense and so economically employed for packaging and dispensing relatively small unit quantities of blades, for example four or five blades, at a time. At the same time it is important that the package should maintain the bladesfully protected with their cutting edges out of contact with the walls of the dispenser, and that in the ejecting operation the individual blades should be accurately guided so as to obviate the danger of chance contact.

With these ends in view, my invention comprises in one aspect a device formed from a single piece of sheet metal bent to form a bottom, upstanding side walls and inturned resilient cover flanges which are separated by a longitudinal slot that is enlarged in a limited area sufficient to provide access to the uppermost blade of the stack within the container and which provides space for aligned studs projecting from the bottom of the dispenser and serving to locate the blades while in the dispensing device and also to guide them as they emerge therefrom.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a view in perspective of the metal blank. from which the dispensing device is made;

Fig. 2 is a view in perspective of the complete device; and

Fig. 3 is a view of the device in longitudinal section on the line 33 of Fig. 2.

The dispensing device of my invention may be constructed from a single integral blank of spring sheet metal or molded from other resilient sheet be died from sheet material and longitudinally scored to define a substantially rectangular bottom portion having slightly curved end edges which merge into narrow longitudinal zones or areas I I and I! on one side. The outer zone I2 in turn merges into a longitudinally disposed flap it; having end edges which are oppositely curved with respect to those of portion Ill and a symmetrically located recess I4 in its edge.

;I At its other side, the bottom portion I 0 merges into similar narrow longitudinal zones or areas J5 and IS. The outer zone IS in turn merges into a? longitudinally disposed flap ll corresponding -to the flap I3 and having a symmetrically arranged recess i8 on its outer edge.

The enveloping portion of the dispenser is completely formed from the blank shown in Fig. 1. The scored lines define the zones lI-It, deterdiiining the fold lines or bending lines. In form- ;ing the enveloping portion of the dispenser the 20 zones or areas II and I5 are first bent upwardly to form an angle of approximately 45 degrees with the bottom portion Hi. The zones or areas "(2 or IE are then bent inwardly at an angle of approximately 90 degrees with the previously bent areas H and I5, and thus form the side walls of the dispenser. Each of these has in effect a 1ongitudinal corrugation which imparts stiffness to the dispenser as a whole.

The enveloping portion of the dispenser is now completed by bending the flaps l3 and I! inwardly at such an angle that they tend to rest Tnormally upon the bottom I!) or upon a blade or a stack of blades located upon the bottom. Thus the angle between the previously bent zone I 2.

and the inturned flap which now forms a cover *"flange is somewhat greater than 90 degrees and in practice the inturned flanges I3 and Il may partake of a concave curvature due to the initial tension imparted to them and which exists between their inner; edges and their line of bending. Y The dispenser is. completed by the addition of "a pair of aligned studs l9 and 20 having upwardly and outwardly diverging top edges and being lov ted in the space or slot between the opposite edges of the inturned flanges I3 and I1. These {studs may be formed. separately and welded in l-"{"place or they may be formed by being struck upwardly-from the material of the bottom portion 5 10. The manner in which they are provided is of secondary importance so long as they perform the functions of positioning the blades within the dispenser and accurately guiding them asthey are removed or ejected. 5.5; The dispenser is herein shown. as containing a stack of five blades of a well-known commercial type, that is to say, double-edged safety razor blades 25 each having a longitudinal median slot and reduced unsharpened end portions. These blades are arranged in the dispenser in longitudinally staggered relation, that is, three blades 2i are impaled upon the stud 29 while two blades 2! .are impaled upon the stud 89. Accordingly the blades 21, and this includes the blade uppermost in the stack as shown in Fig. 2, are free to move only toward the left as indicated by the arrows borne by each blade, while the blades 2i are free to move only toward the right. Movement of any blade in the wrong direction is positively prevented by engagementof its solid end with the shoulder formed by the outer vertical wall of one of the studs 19 or Ell. v The recesses id and iii of the flaps i3 and are oppositely disposed and become in'the firished dispenser an open area affording access by the user to the topmost blade of thestaclt. The concave curvature of the inturnedflanges fits the contour of the thumb or finger of the user and guides it comfortably into contact with the surface of the blade and thus permits him to eject one blade at a time in the direction shown by the arrows on the blade, turning the dispenser end for end between each projecting operation. 1

As herein shown, theblades of the stack. are yieldingly held down by engagement of the inturned flanges i3 and i? of the magazine. However, the flanges are sufflciently. flexible to yield upwardly when the solid rear end of a blade rides up the inclined face of either of the studs l9 or 29 in being removed from the magazine.

Having thus disclosed my invention and described in detail an illustrative embodiment thereof, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent: i

l. A blade-dispensing device comprising a sheet metal envelope having a substantially-rectangular bottom, upstanding side. walls each having a longitudinal corrugation therein, and inturned cover flanges of spring material having opposed edges which tend to flex always toward said bottom and are separated by a narrow longitudinal space, and aligned blade-locating ribs spaced from each other and projecting upwardly from the bottom to points above the inner edges of said flanges.

2. A blade-dispensing device comprising a sheet metal envelope having a flat elongated bottom portion, upstanding side walls merging into .inturned cover flanges of. springmaterial which slope in concave curvature toward. the bottom I 3. A blade-containing and dispensing device "comprising an integral piece of sheet metal bent to form a bottom, upstanding side walls and inturned resilient cover flanges separated from end to end by a longitudinal slot which is symmetrically enlarged throughout its center portion, and spaced aligned studs projecting from the bottom through the slot between the flanges and having oppositely inclined edge faces which extend above the level of the cover flanges.

the said stud.

4. A blade-dispensing device comprising an integral envelope of spring sheet metal including a substantially rectangular bottom, upstanding side walls, and resilient inturned flanges tending atal-l times to spring toward the bottom of the envelope and being spaced apart at their opposite edges thereby defining a longitudinal. slot between them, and blade-locating projections disposed in the slot thus provided and having inclined upper edges which traverse the inner edges of the said" flanges.

5. A blade dispensing device for longitudinally slotted razor blades, comprising walls forming an elongated enclosure having a pair of inturned cover flanges separated by an open space, a flatsided stud having an abruptly shouldered outer edge and an inclined inner edge rising above the cover flanges, and a stack of longitudinally slotted :blades: empaled upon said stud, the said flanges being resilient andnormally holding down the stack but being adapted to flex upwardly temporarily as the solid end of a slotted blade is moved forcibly up the inclined inner edge of CHARLES L. METZLER.

REFERENCES orrsn The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,834,284 Kylberg Dec. 1, 1931 2,330,252 Testi Sept. 28, 1943 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 71,582 Sweden Apr. 7, 1931 

